Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1887-02-27
DESTRUCTION IN THE RIVIERA.

DESTRUCTION IN THE RIVIERA.
The later news from the earthquake that
swept the FrancO-Italian coast of the Med
~iterranean show the loss of life not so great
as was reported on Friday. But the the
destruction, nevertheless, is the greatest
that has beiallen Northern Italy or South
ern France for Along series OF years.
In Southern Italy such calamities are
far more frequent. Terrible commissions
were recorded in the year 1881, when 15,-
coo persons persisted in Sicily; in 1856, on
which occasion 40, 900 people were killed,
in the Kingdom of Naples, and in 1926,
when thirty towns and villages were ruined
in the anne part of the peninsula, aud 10
coo lives We're lost. In April, 1872, an
earthquake killed 1900 people i'm Rimini,
and in September, 1893, no less than 1OO,-
600 persons persisted in Sicily, ffty-iour
cities and towns and 500 villages being de
stroyed. The earthquakes of February,
1908, in Aquila, and November, 1905, in
Abruzzo, killed 5000, and Is 600 victims
respectively, and in 1926 the city of Paler-
mo was nearly destroyed and 5000 lives
were lost. Six years later about 1000
NeapOhtanS were added TO the enOrmOu
army of Italians who had fallen victims to
earthquakes, and other thousands persisted
in Sicily in 1883. In 1sO5 the Kingdom
OF Naples was again visited, and 5000 peO-
pie were stricken down, and in August,
ISL, Southern Italy lost 14,OOO more of
her children through the same dread de
stroyer. CIlabUia was convilSed again in
September, lS57, and 10 goo OF It's inhabi-
tantS slain. In March, l>Sl. the last of
the great Italian earthquakes, before that
which has Just shaken the Riviera, killed
hundreds OF persons in ISchia, and neigh
boring islands.
The recent earthquake at Charleston,
which sinks into ~inSignifcance compared
with that IN the Riviera, makes our peO-
pie feel more than q usual sympathy for
the thousands who have suffered in this
mysterious disaster. The story OF
Ischia in ruins, of the Greek islands con-
Vulsed, OF of mountains in Java hurled into
the deep sea, does not strike us with half
the force. There is a sad sublimity in
scenes like these more intense than one
feels in standing on some mountain top
overlooking two powerful armies strug-
Cling in mortal combat. This has led a
great poet to say:
There rolls the deep where grew The tree.
o Earth, What changes thou hast seen!
There where the long street rOars, hath been
The stiffness of the cent al sea.
The hills are shadows, and they how
From form 10 form, and nothing stands
They melt like mists. the solid lands.
Like clouds they shape themselves and go"
This not only poetry but scientific truth
as well.
Prof. \. S. SHALER has an article in
Scri6aer's for March, on The Stability of
the Earth" that gives much information
on seismic phenomena The article closes
with this: The continent of North
America north of Mexico seems, from his
tOrie as well Is natural evidences, to be in
the main free from any considerable danger
of earthquakes, which are necessarily
destructive Of architecture. Neyerthe-
less a large part of the surface appears to
be liable to shocks, which, though slight,
may be destructive to life and property, if
we per ist IN our present flimsy methods of
architectural construction. Good fortune
has given us a tOlerably safe abiding place
for our race in this country. We can al
most everywhere put our trust in il, pro-